“It’s frustrating, because we think the institution has been hijacked by a small minority who just don’t want to solve problems and want to see us in chaos,” Farr said, referring to the conservative Tea Party faction in the House.

GOP spokesmen have been all over the news saying Obama has failed, he's lazy, he doesn't want a deal, etc., but Obama makes the mildest of jabs at the GOP and media tools start acting concerned. Facepalm.

Oh noes he mocked the Congress. God imagine the fit the media would throw if Truman was around. He called his first Congress, a do nothing one and probably would have said a lot more today. Congress deserves all the criticism it can get. And the voters frankly are part of the problem when they give their own Congressperson a second chance. There is no good reason why the GOP should still have the majority in the House when Congress is at record low popularity.

So much for American exceptionalism. Oh wait, that's only when America is doing what they want. Deal with it idiots, you lost, and the president is able to get his way on many issues. And comparing him to Saddam is pathetic.

I'm thinking more of the supporters and commenters at conservative sites.

Very little of them I imagine. But then again, that kind of mentality goes back to the idiocy that gave us Joe the Plumber as a serious political commentator and this past year as Congressional candidate. Christ though, the way they talk about Obama's tax plans, you'd think he was Hollande in France.

Would we have any type of public pension programs like Social Security?

I suppose you have to define centrism itself to answer that question. Today we look at the New Deal as the American Left in the first time in its history up until that point flexing real electoral muscle to affect social change and better the lives of lower class Americans.

Of course at that time the center was probably much farther to the left than it is now. So who knows.

Centrism now is just a continuous repackaging of Reagan Era ideas, because our economic and intellectual elites are simply too lazy or too greedy to come up with anything else.

It's like they think, who is this guy to have the audacity to get the majority of the votes from the American people? Assholes. Pathetic thing is they'd get worse if Boehner got booted since Cantor is an even bigger tool.

No Dana, they're unsuccessful at GOVERNING. As for the current cat fight in the GOP, no one can make you fight with your friends unless you were spoiling for one in the first place.

Jesus I am SICK of these freaking hateful shits.

Hey, it's a group that thinks all opponents will just roll over and welcome them. Invade Iraq - expecting flowers and wine in the streets. Social legislation to roll back changes over the last fifty years - expect other party to just give them what they want. Tax cuts expiring - expect other party to just extend them all while gutting all the social programs and spend more on military contracts. Nothing has changed in the mind set, just the issue being targeted.

So, has any wingnut ever bothered to explain what the hell the country would look like with a federal government concerned only with defense? I mean that is what they're after pretty much, right? So how is that supposed to work out? What about the Constitution that they claim to love so much? What the hell happens to all of us, including them if they overthrow the government with their guns and Jesus?

Thinking ahead isn't strength of theirs, I know, but WTF do they think would happen if they managed a coup? Then what?

So, has any wingnut ever bothered to explain what the hell the country would look like with a federal government concerned only with defense? I mean that is what they're after pretty much, right? So how is that supposed to work out? What about the Constitution that they claim to love so much? What the hell happens to all of us, including them if they overthrow the government with their guns and Jesus?

Thinking ahead isn't strength of theirs, I know, but WTF do they think would happen if they managed a coup? Then what?

They have no imagination. Don't read fiction. Have no basis for reference except the myths of the past.

So, has any wingnut ever bothered to explain what the hell the country would look like with a federal government concerned only with defense? I mean that is what they're after pretty much, right? So how is that supposed to work out? What about the Constitution that they claim to love so much? What the hell happens to all of us, including them if they overthrow the government with their guns and Jesus?

Thinking ahead isn't strength of theirs, I know, but WTF do they think would happen if they managed a coup? Then what?

So, has any wingnut ever bothered to explain what the hell the country would look like with a federal government concerned only with defense? I mean that is what they're after pretty much, right? So how is that supposed to work out? What about the Constitution that they claim to love so much? What the hell happens to all of us, including them if they overthrow the government with their guns and Jesus?

Thinking ahead isn't strength of theirs, I know, but WTF do they think would happen if they managed a coup? Then what?

The masses would go into the street with flowers and wine to celebrate their newly regranted freedom.

Reality is that we'd be living in a police state with checkpoints and automatic weapons all over. Warrant-less searches and probably a continuous "state of emergency" with the protections of the Constitution temporarily suspended.

The masses would go into the street with flowers and wine to celebrate their newly regranted freedom.

Reality is that we'd be living in a police state with checkpoints and automatic weapons all over. Warrant-less searches and probably a continuous "state of emergency" with the protections of the Constitution temporarily suspended.

I'd really like to hear a tea party member or a follower of Crazy Uncle Liberty answer my question though. With all their whining and bitching, you'd think they'd at least have come up with something, even a fever dream.

"Everyone should pray, sending strength to our Commander to overcome this difficult moment," Jacqueline Faria, a Chavez appointee and top official in Caracas, said in a Twitter post announcing the concert's cancellation.

God, it's so weird and creepy to refer to your notionally democratically elected leader of civilian government as 'Commander'.

I'd really like to hear a tea party member or a follower of Crazy Uncle Liberty answer my question though. With all their whining and bitching, you'd think they'd at least have come up with something, even a fever dream.

It would be interesting. I don't think they'd ever give a direct answer. You'd get fragments of ideas, but nothing cohesive.

I doubt I'd get a coherent answer, but it would give me the chance to look at them and say"proceed little tea partier, proceed". And "Ok, so then what?"after they tell me how fun a coup would be, and libertyfreedomMOAR GUNZES!!!

I doubt I'd get a coherent answer, but it would give me the chance to look at them and say"proceed little tea partier, proceed". And "Ok, so then what?"after they tell me how fun a coup would be, and libertyfreedomMOAR GUNZES!!!

I think that's it. The inability to think sequentially. First this, then this, then this . . ..

I think it's been so long since we've had dirt-poor homeless, shoe-less, eating out of garbage cans people everywhere and visible in this country, that the average citizen (especially the tea partiers) think it can't happen.

It wasn't until we decided to create government programs to help people that this happened. Churches and charities were there trying to do their best, but it took a Federal effort to truly help masses of people.

It's getting pretty easy to predict GOP talking points. Take the most cynical perspective out of any comment or action from Obama then go with it. When it comes to a tie between which cynical perspective is worse, go with both.

It's the dawn of austerity as imposed by this same US Congress and signed into law in successive deals with Presidents Bush and Obama.

The tax rates will revert to the pre-2001 rates. The economy did just fine without the lower rates during the 1990s, but the GOP will treat it as though the sky is falling. Capital gains rates will revert to the older, higher rates (when the stock markets did pretty well for themselves too).

The income tax hikes wont take effect until you start doing your tax year 2013 returns starting after January 1, 2014. Withholding will change, but Congress could adjust the rates and tax brackets, which will reduce take home pay until an agreement is reached.

But know this. Congress will have an easier time to reach an agreement to cut taxes than it will have to raise taxes. It's in both parties interests to see the rates rise, even if it's for a day or two into 2013 before cutting a deal on cutting them to the rate in 2012 (or creating new brackets).

The optics of this suck, but the politics works.

The budget cuts are a worse deal, since they'll actually do more to harm the economy than help, but the GOP wants to severely curtain SS and Medicare/Medicaid and they're using this crisis to push for cuts, even though those programs are paid for through dedicated taxes (and Obamacare increases the Medicare portion starting in 2013).

When the GOP says that 1 trillion in tax hikes, they want people to think that that's all happening in one shot. That's a lie. It's the culmulative hike over the projected period - 10 years.

There are also more immediate hits to the economy, including the hike on dairy prices and the lack of the AMT patch that will hit immediately, but those are not insurmountable.

It's going to get more bumpy than we've seen, and Wall Street will not take kindly to this in the short run, but the long term will not be greatly affected, even if the higher capital gains hits. This is still about posturing and trying to lay blame. The GOP thinks that going over inures benefits to them politically, but polling suggests otherwise. It will actually strengthen the hands of the Administration since they don't have to do anything and they've gotten the top tax rate to rise - going back to what I said above. It's easier to get tax cuts done than impose higher rates.

But now the politics favors the White House since they only have to watch the clock run out and they've got the rates reset to pre-2001.

And then there's the debt limit - they're going to use the SS/Medicare/Medicaid as hostage to that - forcing changes in exchange for increasing the limits, or alternatively, using it to force lower tax rates.

According to the download CPH-L-163, the South has traditionally had the majority of people living in poverty.

Could it be that the tea-partiers and other whacko's from the South think the feudalistic disparities are normal? It seems to be normal for them. The North and the South have two different visions of acceptable socio-economic norms.

And then there's the debt limit - they're going to use the SS/Medicare/Medicaid as hostage to that - forcing changes in exchange for increasing the limits, or alternatively, using it to force lower tax rates.

Why is it precisely the programs people have paid-into that they focus on? What about the programs that are truly entitlements?

From where I'm sitting, it's looking more and more like '11 again: Boehner is reliant on the Senate to move things forward because he's only leading two things (jack and shit), and McConnell's trying to extract more blood from the turnip because his ass is on the line in '14. Meanwhile, Obama and Democrats are getting ready to bargain away virtually all their chips on a temporary deal that will please the market but leave us facing another stand-off in a month's time, where there will be no chips to bargain with in order to avoid steep cuts to the poor and middle class.

According to the download CPH-L-163, the South has traditionally had the majority of people living in poverty.

Could it be that the tea-partiers and other whacko's from the South think the feudalistic disparities are normal? It seems to be normal for them. The North and the South have two different visions of acceptable socio-economic norms.

Hmmm it could be. What a lot of people don't know is during the Jim Crow period, Southern politics was often dominated by wealthy planters who did all they could to discourage the participation of the less well off- white and black alike. I attended a lecture by a professor from William and Mary who pointed out that due to the work of the Byrd Organization here in Virginia, fo the longest time Virginia consistently had one of the lowest vote turnouts in the nation.

Hmmm it could be. What a lot of people don't know is during the Jim Crow period, Southern politics was often dominated by wealthy planters who did all they could to discourage the participation of the less well off- white and black alike. I attended a lecture by a professor from William and Mary who pointed out that due to the work of the Byrd Organization here in Virginia, fo the longest time Virginia consistently had one of the lowest vote turnouts in the nation.

I was thinking along those lines as well. Feudalism, in many ways, has not left the South.

I have to wonder if the whackos are looking at the world and seeing chaos. They may truly believe the only way to "handle" it is a return to feudalism. They seem to want a Sky God to make sense of it all for them.

Perhaps they truly want (opposite of their perceived Ayn Rand Individualistic Dogma) Monarchical order imposed on the world.

I was thinking along those lines as well. Feudalism, in many ways, has not left the South.

Right. Makes sense really given the kind of people who dominated the Southern political landscape before and after the Civil War really. The South never really I'd say with the exception of New Orleans had the immigrant machines that the Northeast had in Boston, New York, etc.

Right. Makes sense really given the kind of people who dominated the Southern political landscape before and after the Civil War really. The South never really I'd say with the exception of New Orleans had the immigrant machines that the Northeast had in Boston, New York, etc.

Yeah. Unique place in an unique place. Really need to read All The King's Men and a good Huey Long bio one of these days.

Another of the books in my eternal stack.

Another good one is Black Catholics In America by Cyprian Davis. It's more a history book than a "RC" book. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn more about the history of the US. It has some especially good points about New Orleans and the South.

Another good one is Black Catholics In America by Cyprian Davis. It's more a history book than a "RC" book. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn more about the history of the US. It has some especially good points about New Orleans and the South.

Truly 1/2 of our history has not been presented in the History Books.

It was always annoying in history class at school that we'd rush through post WWII because it was at the end of the year and we had to prep for the standardized test mandated by the state. If one wants to know why I dislike standardized tests, that's a big reason why.

I have a book here about quilts and the Underground Railroad that is fascinating. Quilts were used as a secret language, kind of like street signs to guide people along the path to freedom. Hung on clotheslines or front porch railings to dry or air out, they were a secret language. I never read that in any school history book, and I was a nerd who took every high school history class offered.

It was always annoying in history class at school that we'd rush through post WWII because it was at the end of the year and we had to prep for the standardized test mandated by the state. If one wants to know why I dislike standardized tests, that's a big reason why.

I'm not a fan of them either, but how else can we evaluate large numbers of students and schools?